? Jockey suspended for seven days but can ride at Chester
? Panel unsure his failure to ride out cost horse second place
Kieren Fallon admitted to having "a humpy style" of riding racehorses as he tried to talk his way out of a lengthy ban for failing to push a horse out to the finish. The former champion jockey was only partially successful, as the period of his suspension was reduced from 10 days to seven, but he will still be unable to take part in both the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas next weekend.
"I'll be honest with you, I haven't got the best style," Fallon told a disciplinary panel at the offices of the British Horseracing Authority on Thursday. "It's the way I ride. Most jockeys have a flat back but I sit up."
Fallon was represented by his solicitor, Rory MacNeice, who mounted a vigorous attack on the decision by the Kempton stewards that the jockey had lost second place by failing to ride Sukhothai all the way to the winning post in an 11-furlong handicap last week. Comfortably held by the winner, Sukhothai was relegated to third in the final stride by the fast-finishing Watered Silk, which Fallon did not see "until he was nearly on me".
Watching a replay of the final two furlongs, Fallon said of Sukhothai: "She's not making any progress on the winner. I switched my hands and gave her another tap [with the whip] but she had absolutely no response, so I just squeezed her out from there.
"You can see from my elbows, I'm squeezing her. It's the best way to get the last bit out of them. I'm using my body, I'm not a whip jockey. I'd rather get my body behind them, it's more effective.
"All I can do is do my best to help her keep her momentum. Especially when a horse is tired and wants to stop, you don't gain anything by hitting her, especially with fillies."
The BHA's Max Baines was nevertheless able to persuade the panel that Fallon had indeed stopped riding for the last few strides of the race, though he stressed there was no suggestion that this was done deliberately or dishonestly. The panel, however, lacked the conviction of the Kempton stewards that Fallon's inaction had definitely cost his mount second place and imposed a shorter ban.
That means the rider can now take part in all three days of the May meeting at Chester, which he would have missed in its entirety if the original ban had stood. But Ed Dunlop will need to find a new jockey for his 2,000 Guineas runner Native Khan, winner of last week's Craven Stakes.
Jason Maguire had more success in a later appeal, persuading the panel to wipe out a 10-day ban for taking the wrong course at Wetherby on Sunday. The Grand National-winning rider told the panel that, in passing on the wrong side of an island of rails, he was acting out of a desire to avoid the injured Harry Haynes, still on the ground after a fall on the first circuit.
The panel accepted Maguire had reasonable cause to ride as he did and quashed his suspension. That outcome may irk Paul Gallagher, given an identical ban for the same offence, who decided against an appeal.
Peter Toole has been moved out of intensive care almost a fortnight after a fall at Aintree on Grand National day left the jockey with bleeding on the right side of his brain. He is reported in a stable condition in a high dependency ward in Liverpool.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/21/kieren-fallon-appeal-guineas
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